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Talk:English modal auxiliary verbs

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Use(d (to)): modal or not?

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Use /jus/ is these days a lexical verb, more often than not. But it used not only to be. It used to be an auxiliary verb too, usedn't it? (Yes, it used to.) And for some speakers, it still is.

Now, the question is of whether to treat it as a modal auxiliary verb, or as just a (non-modal) auxiliary verb. Two authorities that treat it as a modal:

  • Quirk, Randolph; Greenbaum, Sidney; Leech, Geoffrey; Svartvik, Jan (1985). A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language. London: Longman. ISBN 0-582-51734-6.
  • Warner, Anthony R. (1993). English Auxiliaries: Structure and History. Cambridge Studies in Linguistics 66. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-30284-5.

Three that do not:

  • Aarts, Bas (2011). Oxford Modern English Grammar. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-953319-0.

Wikipedia shouldn't pretend that there's agreement. But it also shouldn't treat use as a modal in this article and as a non-modal in the article English auxiliary verbs -- which is what it does now.

Plan: A week from now, if nobody objects, I'll:

  • remove most of the material in this article about use;
  • in this article, acknowledge that a "modal auxiliary verb" status of use has its supporters;
  • in this article, point to the discussion of use in the other article;
  • paste into the other article the material about use from this article (acknowledging its source);
  • edit the material in that article about use (cutting duplication, etc);
  • make sure that in that article is an acknowledgement that a "modal auxiliary verb" status of use has its supporters.

How about it? -- Hoary (talk) 12:15, 17 December 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Quirk et al. admit that it is not semantically modal, "in formal terms, however, it fits the marginal modal category." If modality is a semantic concept, then this appears simply to be sloppy terminology. I think your plan is sound.--Brett (talk) 14:40, 17 December 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Brett, I wrote the lengthy question cum tentative announcement above while 80% asleep, and wake to find that it's about as prolix and incoherent as would be expected. Well done on your success in making sense of it. Yes, after considering the syntax of use, Huddleston similarly adds "It is also semantically quite distinct from the modal auxiliaries: the meaning it expresses is aspectual, not modal." But if we were using semantic criteria, we'd have considerable trouble (at best) with need and would have to reject dare. -- Hoary (talk) 21:46, 17 December 2023 (UTC)[reply]
I'm all for rejecting dare. My understanding of semantics isn't nuanced enough to say whether need can qualify as modal. Brett (talk) 20:19, 18 December 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Brett, for clarity, I should have titled this "Use(d (to)): modal auxiliary verb or not?" Because I think that expression of modality as a criterion for modal auxiliary verbs is akin to reference to a thing as a criterion for nouns. But FWIW in my (hoary?) idiolect, the parental complaint Need you make so much noise? is indistinguishable from Must you make so much noise?: dynamic modality. And the impatient You needn't make such an issue of it has some similarity to You shouldn't make such an issue of it: deontic modality. -- Hoary (talk) 21:56, 18 December 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Point taken.--Brett (talk) 11:51, 19 December 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Done. -- Hoary (talk) 08:38, 24 December 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Dialect verb darest (allegedly)

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On 28 December 2012, somebody added:

There is also a dialect verb, nearly obsolete but sometimes heard in Appalachia and the Deep South of the United States: darest, which means "dare not", as in "You darest do that."

-- with no reference. Despite their later block, the writer seems to have been serious. But as there's little hope that they'll reappear and source this claim, I'm about to delete it. Anyone is free to readd it, but with a source. -- Hoary (talk) 07:20, 19 December 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Change of referencing style

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I've offered to help Hoary with converting the references in this article to use {{sfn}} style short form refs, rather tha the current use of refnames and {{rp}} trmplates. If no-one objects I'll start the work tomorrow. -- LCU ActivelyDisinterested «@» °∆t° 12:35, 27 December 2023 (UTC)[reply]

No objection, but what's the benefit? Brett (talk) 17:20, 27 December 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Hoary is looking to do a lot of work on the article and is looking to tidy how references look in the article. Currently there's one that looks like this in the middle of the text, "[4]: 128–131, 141–143 [8]: 46 [1]: 111–114 [2]: 301–302, 304–305". Once converted that will becomes"[4][8][1][2]", with the pages appearing in the reference section instead. The once Hoary's work is complete this would be reduced to just "[4]" using {{sfnm}}, with all the details appear to together in the reflist. The point is to have a better flow of text, while maintaining all the details for verification. -- LCU ActivelyDisinterested «@» °∆t° 17:54, 27 December 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Neat! Brett (talk) 20:34, 27 December 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Yes, Brett, I can confirm what ActivelyDisinterested says. Incidentally, I once strongly disliked the use in articles of {{sfn}}, and for what I still think were good reasons; but these reasons have evaporated (thanks to, I suppose, some change to Mediawiki). -- Hoary (talk) 22:44, 27 December 2023 (UTC)[reply]
On Hoary's advise I'm putting this off till the second, in case anyone does object. -- LCU ActivelyDisinterested «@» °∆t° 22:39, 27 December 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Yes, good: there's no immense rush. -- Hoary (talk) 22:44, 27 December 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Amazing conversion job done! A tip of the hat to ActivelyDisinterested for this series of edits and a much improved look 'n' feel for the article. I fear that all of that would have taken me most of one day. Thank you, ActivelyDisinterested! -- Hoary (talk) 04:40, 3 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Dasn't

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The only contracted form of "dare not" that I have heard and that I use is dasn't. While not especially common, it definitely exists. See, e.g., Huckleberry Finn ("There was a place on my ankle that got to itching, but I dasn't scratch it; and then my ear begun to itch . . . ," "'And I dasn't mind your sharing the cost o' they nanny-things out jist like ye said.'"(Freedom, 2020), "... dasn't go help her" (Revenants by Tabitha Beck, 2012).Kdammers (talk) 12:30, 15 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]

"Can't" listed at Redirects for discussion

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The redirect Can't has been listed at redirects for discussion to determine whether its use and function meets the redirect guidelines. Readers of this page are welcome to comment on this redirect at Wikipedia:Redirects for discussion/Log/2025 March 8 § Can't until a consensus is reached. Justjourney (talk) 01:20, 8 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

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